Machine for assembling shells



A. J. STHANE. MACHINE FOR ASSEMBLING SHELLS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE I3, 1919.

2 SHEETSSHEET I- lkvemfon Patented Mar. 23, 1920.

A. J. STRANE.

MACHINE FOR ASSEMBLING SHELLS. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 13, 1919.

1,334,326, Patented Mar. 23,1920.

. 2 $HET$-SHEET 2- ml w ALEtllIl-lIIBALD JACKSON STRANE, F TAMAQUA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASdIG-NUIR T0 ATLAS COMPANY, 015' lJVlLMIIilt-l'ltlll',

MitlilllllNE ll'lllt ASS llpecification of Letters Patent.

DELAWARE, A CORPDRATIUN lllli DELA- EMBLIING hlElELLS.

Patented Mar. 23, 1920.

Application filer] .Il'unc it, 1919. Serial ltc. 304,012.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l Anni-nests Jscnson SWTRANJE, a citizen oi the United States cl America, residing at 'lamaqua, in the county oi dchuylkill and Eltate 0t Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Machines for Assembling llhells, oi which the lollowing is a specilica tion,

This invention relates to a machine tor assembling shells in shellholders and the ob ject oil the invention is to provide an improved device of this character by means of which empty shells olf' various lrinds may be automatically and rapidly led to and placed in position, open end up, in shell-- holders preparatory to loading said shells or, in the case ol shells that have been loaded, assembling said shells in proper position in linal containers Further objects and advantages of the invention will he set forth in the detailed description which now lollows.

ln the accompanying drawings Figure l is a vertical sectional view of a machine constructed in accordance with the invention with the mechanisms ol the several parts diagrammatically illustrated; 2 a transverse vertical section through a part ol the bottom oil a hopper hereinalter dot-scribed and Fig. is a plan view oil the machine lailre numerals designate corre sponding parts in all oi the :ligures ol the drawing l lhile l have, for the purpose ol illu tration, shown the machine in relation to its use tor assembling ordinary paper shells having metallic ends it will he understood. the machine is designed to as-- semhle any character oil shell having one ol its ends closed or, in other words, so con structed that one the ends is heavier than the other when the shell poised suhstantially midway o'l. length The machine comprises a hopper 5 having an inclined loottom 8. This hottom grooved at l to terms plurality oi guide ways down which shells slide by gravity into and through tuhes or channels 8, alined with the grooves ll "lhe hottoin ot the hopper is slotted as indicated at 9 hetween each ol the grooves l and the teeth ill at a comh operate througl'i these slots as here-- ina'lter set lorth and start a ralring upon shells deposited in the hopper 5 to cause said shells to be deposited lengthwise in the grooves It is apparent that this raking action can. do no more than cause the shells to lie longitudinally in the grooves it cannot determine which end will be disposed downwardly and the result is that the closed ends of some of the shells will be disposed downwardly and the, open ends of other oil the shells will be disposed downwardly and in this position the shells will pass through the channels 8. To provide an escapement mechanism by which the shells may be fed one by one through the several tubes 8 a rock shaft 12 is disposed across the entire battery of tubes, said shaft carrying a plurality o'l lingers 13 that are fixed to said shaft and a plurality of lingers ll'that are yieldably connected to said shalt 'oy springs 15. Any suitable means may be employed for imparting oscillatory movement to shaft 12, such for example, as an arm 16 upon the said shalt which depends into the path of movement cl an actuating memloer hereinafter described The shells which pass downwardly through the tubes or channels 8 are received in arcuate grooves ll termed in a tipple plate 18, This plate is pivoted to swing about an airis indicated at 19, and a spring 20 lunctions to move said plate upwardly against a lined stop Ell. "l l hen at its upper limit o'l move ment the tipple plate alines with the tubes it. A lined stop bar carries goose neclrs 28 which constitute aloutincnts against which the lower ends of the shells come to rest and these goose neclrs are provided with threaded stems all that may be adjusted through the ham 2?; by means out nuts lt will he apparent that this constitutes an ad justment lay which it may be determined how tar the shells will be permitted to pass into the poclrets ll 'llhis renders possible to talre care oil shells o'l varying lengths in the same machine The tipple plate is provided with a longitudinally eritending groove Q6 which traverses all oil the poclrets ll and lies suhstantially midway ol' the length oil the shells when said shells are in a position o'l rest in said poclrcts. ll linile edge is disposed below and in alinement with the groove Q6 and is adapted to enter said groove when the ripple plate is lowered to the dotted line position illustrated in it This lllll knife edge is disposed between the open ends of a plurality of pairs of conducting tubes 28, 28, it being understood that there is apair of these tubes related to each of the pockets 17 and it will be observed that these tubes 28, 28, merge into common conducting tubes29 and the function of the machine is to deliver the shells open'end up into the several tubes by which they are conducted to the shellholders, not shown.

The parts so far described constitute the essential elements of the machine. clear that various ways of actuating these several movable parts may be resorted to within the range of mechanical skill. It is therefore to be understood that the connections described for imparting movement to the several parts are diagrammatic only and have been illustrated merely for the purpose of outlining an operative structure. To this end I have indicated a driven shaft 30 actuated by a pulley 31 and driven by a belt 32. A belt 33 drives a shaft 34 which carries a plurality of sprockets 35 over which chains 36 pass, and it is these chains that carry the teeth 10 of the comb. It will readily be seen that these teeth pass upwardly through the lower portions of the SlOts 9 and travel rearwardly in elevated positions and then descend and pass forwardly while out of engagement with the shells. A belt 37, by means of a pulley 38, drives a disk 39 that carries a pin 40. This pin operates in a slot 41 of a link 42 that is connected to onearm of a bell crank lever 43. The other arm of this bell crank lever is connected by a link 44 with the tipple plate 18. During the rotation of the disk 39 the pin 4O engages the left hand end of the slot 41 and a pull is imparted to the link 42 which results in pulling the tipple plate down to the dotted line position illustrated in Fig. 1, and against the tension of the spring 20. Thereupon the knife edge 27 enters the groove 26 and engages all of the shells in the ba ttery of pockets 17 substantially midway of their lengths and tends to lift them. The shells will thereupon tip in one direction or the other according to the way their heavy ends are disposed. If the heavy end of a shell is disposed downwardly the shell will tip to the right in Fig. 1 while if the heavy end of a shell is disposed upwardly said shell will tip toward the left in that figure. Since it. is the heavy end of the shell that tips downwardly in each instance, it follows that the lower ends of the shells will first enter the tubes 28, 28 and consequently all .of the shells will pass from the tube 29 with their closed ends downward. By providing the goose necks 23 and arranging these goose necks as shown these parts act as stops for the shells and continue to exercise their func tion of preventing further downward movement of the shells under the influence of It is' gravity until after the tipple plate 18 has moved toward the dotted line position illustrated in Fig. 1, to and beyond the angle of repose of the shell. In other words by the time the shells move downwardly until they are free of the goose necks 23 they have moved to such a osition that they no longer tend to move endivise under the influence of gravity and they will remain in the position to which they have been adjusted by the goose necks until they are engaged by the knife edge 27 and will tip in one direction or the other. A belt 45, a pulley 46, a shaft 47, and fingers 48 on said shaft constitute conventional means for imparting movement to the arm 16 against the tension of a spring 16 whereby oscillatory movement is imparted to the rock shaft 12. \Vhcn one of the fingers 48 contacts with the arm 16 initial movement of the rock shaft causes the finger 14 to engage the shell a and to hold the line of shells from further downward movement. The yielding mounting of the finger 14 with respect to the rock shaft permits continued movement of the arm 16 enough to raise the arm 13 out of blocking position' with respect to the shell Z), where upon said shell is permitted to slide down into the corresponding pocket of the tipple plate. The yielding mounting of the finger 14 with respect to the shaft 12 causes this finger to continue to exercise its holding function after the arm 16 starts to return to the full lin position illustrated in F ig. 1 and to bring the finger 13 into blocking position and this holding action of the finger 11 continues until the finger 13 has actually reached blocking position after which the continued improvement of the arm 16 lifts the spring finger, slightly out of contact with v the shell a and permits the shell to slide down into contact with the finger 13.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the arrangement and construction set forth but that it includes within its purview whatever changes fairly come within either the terms or the spirit of the appended claims.

Having described my invention what I claim is 1. In a machine of the character described the combination with a shell receiving element of a shell engaging element adapted to engage the sides of the shells, means for moving on:- of said elements with relation. to the other to bring the shell engaging elementinto contact with said shells to tend to poise them thereon and members for receiving said. shells as they tip in one direction or the other from the shell engaging element.

2. In a machine of the character described the combination with a shell receiving element of a shell engaging element adapted to engage the sides of the shells, means for moving one of said elements with relation to the other to bring the shell engaging element into contact With said shells to tend to poise them thereon, conducting members for receiving said shells as they tip in one direction orthe other from the shell engaging element and common conducting members to ivvhich the first named conducting members sad.

3. In a machine of the character described the combination with a tiltable plate having a shell receiving pocket formed therein of means for feeding shells endWise into said pocket and a shell engaging element traversing said pocket and adapted to engage the side of the shell and means for impart ing movement to said tiltable plate to bring the shell into engagement with the shell engaging element to cause said shell to tip in one direction or the other according to the direction in which its heavy end is dis-posed.

4. A structure as recited in claim 3 in combination With a stop for limiting the movement of the shell into said pocket and means for adjusting said stop.

5. In a machine of the character described the combination with an element having pockets and tiltable from an inclined to a substantially horizontal position, means for iteeding shells gravitally thereinto and a member adapted to engage the shells at their sides and intermediate of their ends upon the'movement of the said element toward a horizontal position.

6. A structure as recited in claim 5 in combination with a stop adapted to limit the movement of the shells into said pockets said shells moving out of engagement with said stop upon movement of the said element toward horizontal position.

7. A hopper having a plurality of longitndinal grooves in its bottom, slots formed in the bottom between said grooves and a rake or comb the teeth of which are operable in, said slots'to longitudinally aline shells in said grooves.

8. In a device of the character described the combination With a tiltable element having a plurality of pockets formed therein, into which the shellsare delivered gravitally from said conduits," said tiltable element having a groove formed therein traversing all of said pockets and an edged element disposed below the tiltable element adapted to enter said groove and engage the sides of the shells and means for moving the tiltable elemeiit toward said edged element.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in the presence of tWo Witnesses.

ARGHIBALD JACKSON STRANE. -Witnesses:

M. C. BURT, H. N. FINN. 

